Shell – How to execute as the logged-in user in a sudo script (OSX)

commandexecnot-root-usershell-scriptsudo

Is there a way to switch contexts like that?

The script in my specific case is an installer postinstall script, which requires sudo privileges only for some of the tasks and requires the logged-in user to execute a LaunchAgent at the end of the script.

If this agent is started with sudo privileges, paths to logs and other resources that are user specific (placed in the user dir) get messed up.

Best Answer

This is what worked for me:

USER_NAME=$(printf '%s' "${SUDO_USER:-$USER}")

sudo -u $USER_NAME <command-to-exec-in-nonroot-context>

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Shell – Allow another user to run a specific script as the ID

With sudo you can get very granular with your permissions. If you want to give a user permission to only run your script and nothing else you can add this line to your /etc/sudoers:

user ALL=(yourusername) NOPASSWD: /path/to/your/script

Then, as the other use, you would run:

sudo -u yourusername /path/to/your/script

Run Script with Arguments as User Using Sudo or SU

The current user is already in the variable $USER. So all you need is:

[ "$USER" = "myuser" ] || sudo -u myuser $0 "$@"

There is no need for sudo su, sudo can do everything you require. You also don't need pwd or basename, the $0 variable already has the full path to the script.

Your original command was starting a login shell (su -). If that's really needed (which seems strange), you can do:

[ "$USER" = "myuser" ] || sudo -iu myuser $0 "$@"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Shell – Allow another user to run a specific script as the ID

Run Script with Arguments as User Using Sudo or SU

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